Just as easy-to-use creative apps like iMovie and GarageBand have made it easier to craft music and videos, so AppSeed is poised to make it much easier to build iOS apps. Simply using the app to snap a photo of a rough sketch scribbled onto a notepad or napkin will turn that sketch into working, interactive interface pieces that can be arranged, re-arranged and tested.

App developers call this process prototyping: The stage during app development in which a mockup of the interface is messed around with in order to make sure all the buttons and fields are in the right places. Having an app like AppSeed around to instantly digitize that interface idea hastily scrawled onto a napkin in a bar over a few Cable Cars cuts out a wide swath of tedious work that would otherwise be necessary.

Even better, though the app is a Kickstarter project, once available it’ll be free, with paid feature updates in the future. You can still pop for pledge’s on the app’s Kickstarter site though; currently, $30 (Canadian) will get you the Kickstarter edition of the app — which includes any future features free — a sketchbook and a little name recognition.

About the author

When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's test editor-at-large. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.

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